Digital Technology for Digital Living.
August 08, 2007
MF-575 Digital Picture Frame Review
Why give someone a single still framed picture when you can give them an entire slide show? The MF-575 is an inexpensive hi-tech digital photo, MP3, and video player with a bright, high-resolution 5.6-inch color TFT screen.
This year on Christmas morning, I was thinking about taking a series of pictures while everyone is opening their gifts. Then I’ll take the memory card out of my digital camera and pop it into the MF-575 picture frame for an instant slide show for everyone to enjoy on Christmas afternoon. Good idea right? The number of images you can put into your MF-575 slide show is only limited by the capacity of the memory card being used.
Here’s the full review: MF-575 Digital Picture Frame
BeSocial: digg story | methodshop
methodshop | Comments (0) | Digital Camera
April 12, 2007
Remove Red Eye In Adobe Photoshop
Red eye. What a pain in the ass. I have so many great photos in my iPhoto Library which have been ruined because of red eye. Sometimes I use the red eye tools iPhoto or Adobe Photoshop to fix problematic images, but unfortunately they don’t always do a good job.
Luckily red eye is very easy to fix manually in Adobe Photoshop (US, UK). You just need to know how. Here’s a tutorial on how to remove red eye using Adobe Photoshop 7.0 or higher.
Tutorial: Remove Red Eye In Adobe Photoshop
BeSocial: digg story | methodshop
methodshop | Comments (0) | Digital Camera, Software
December 27, 2006
Pro Viewer Binocular Camera
Are you into bird watching? Or maybe you like to snap pictures of topless celebrities at the beach? Regardless of your intentions, with the Pro Viewer BinoCam, you’ll always take a crystal-clear shot no matter how far away you are from the action.
The Pro Viewer BinoCam is pair of binoculars and a digital camera all rolled into one. It features an 8X non-digital zoom with a 2.1 mega pixel camera capable of taking 1600 x 1200 pixel photos. After you snap the perfect picture, you can review it instantly with the BinoCam’s built-in 1.5-inch full-color LCD screen. The BinoCam can also record 30 second AVI video clips.
Not interested in stalking celebrities? Of course, you can also take the BinoCam to the beach and watch the surfers ride the perfect wave. Prove to your friends you spotted whales on that last boat trip, or even assist the police by snapping Mel Gibson’s license plate as he gets wasted and drives around California blaming the Jews for everything.
The Pro Viewer BinoCam combines powerful binoculars, a high-resolution camera and a camcorder all in one. It’s all you need to catch the action… from a safe distance.
Specs:
- Image Sensor: 2.1 mega pixels
- Resolution: 1600 x 1200 (H); 640 x 480 (L)
- Interface: USB 1.1
- OS Support: Windows 98/98SE/2000/ME/XP
- Measures: 6 x 1.5 inches
- Weighs: 1.3 pounds
Features:
- SD Card Slot
- Magnification: 8X non-digital zoom
- Objective lens diameter: 32mm
- Focus Range: 18 meters to infinity
- Auto exposure
- 1.5″ TFT Color LCD
- Note: Requires 4 AAA alkaline batteries (not included)
methodshop | Comments (0) | Digital Camera
November 30, 2006
Naked People on Google Earth
Like sunbathing naked outdoors? Who doesn’t (especially Europeans). Just keep in mind that one day a satellite might fly by and capture your naked body for the good of posterity. Services like Google Maps and Google Earth have made satellite photography accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. This topless sunbather became an overnight Internet sensation, but she’s not alone. Apparently the Hague is overrun with naked and semi-naked Dutch people.
So grab a magnifying glass and open up Adobe Photoshop, because here’s Google Sightseeing.com’s Top 10 Naked People on Google Earth!
10) This picture got a lot of people hot under the collar. Many people think she’s on her front, but personally I remain unconvinced.
09) Very close to the original topless sunbather, this one is definitely female, I think. It looks like she’s lying on her front, and she does appear to have some kind of top on, so keep your hair on people!
08) Just six doors down, here’s a half-naked Dutch, person. Wearing a sarong perhaps?
07) This ones been widely discussed on other sites, but I personally reckon this is a guy, wearing shorts. Phew!
06) This person thinks they have privacy on this rooftop (haven’t they seen Enemy of the State?) and they’re definitely topless! (Sex unknown of course, but topless nevertheless.)
05) Outside a cafe on the beach (presumably before it opened that day), we find someone sitting calmly in a chair, blissfully unaware the whole world can now see them in their birthday suit.
04) The previous nudist may have also been unaware that just on the other side of the building, there was another person sunning themselves - flat on their back and completely in the altogether! Does anyone know someone that works in this cafe by the way?
03) Again on the beach, here’s a couple of naked people who think they can hide behind a beach wind wall! Don’t they know there is no escape?
02) Hiding away behind some bushes is no escape either. Mind you, I wish that person would keep their legs together. Yeuch!
01) Well, do you know of a better picture? I’m sure there’s loads more brilliant ones yet to be found. So fire up Google Earth and start searching! Enjoy.
methodshop | Comments Off | Broadband, Digital Camera
October 13, 2006
Live News via Treo Phone
When a single-engine plane crashed into an Upper East Side apartment building on Wednesday, Fox News Channel delivered early video to its viewers from the crash site using a hand-held mobile phone with live streaming video.
Scott Wilder, a Fox cameraman, had been about 20 blocks away on another assignment when the crash occurred. Wilder ran uptown and reported live from the scene using a hand-held Palm Treo Smartphone that uses the existing mobile network to transmit video to the Fox News control room. From there, Fox News sent it out live on TV to supplement other video being shot by local traffic helicopters.
The picture quality from the crash site wasn’t spectacular, but it was live. Wilder was also able to talk to “Studio B” anchor Shepard Smith on the same phone and give a live “man on the street” report to Fox viewers.
As these advanced video phones become more and more popular, we can probably expect a surge of citizen journalism. If YouTube can make anyone an Internet celebrity, a video phone can make anyone a reporter. Right?
methodshop | Comments (0) | General, Mobile Phone, Portable, Video, Digital Camera
September 09, 2006
Katie Couric’s Photoshop Diet
Have you heard about the new celebrity diet craze? It’s easy. No dieting or exercise is required. Just a few Adobe Photoshop lessons and you can lose 20 pounds in the matter of minutes… like new CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric.
Evidence of Katie’s new “digital diet” was published in a CBS publicity magazine called Watch, and distributed on American Airlines flights. The former NBC Today star’s neck and waistline have clearly been digitally “photoshopped” to make her look about 20 pounds lighter. The original photo was taken at an advertiser presentation earlier this spring before getting a digital workout in CBS’ graphics department.
Is CBS photoshopping more than publicity photos of news anchors? We hope not. Why not let a photo speak for itself?
methodshop | Comments (0) | General, Digital Camera, Software
June 23, 2005
Canon PowerShot S2 IS has arrived
They kept us waiting anxiously for a few weeks, but the Canon PowerShot S2 IS is now in stores (Ted’s Camera Store and Harvey Norman) for $749. It’s been getting the most hits on Digital Photography Review for a while now and this gadget junkie can’t wait to get his hands on one.
Digital Photography Review has also recently posted a comprehensive review.
Kap | Comments (2) | Digital Camera
April 25, 2005
Canon PowerShot S2 IS
Canon announced the new PowerShot S2 IS a few days ago.
According to PhotoReview Australia, it’ll be in Australia by the 1st of June.
It’s got a few interesting features:
- Can shoot continuously at 2.4fps until the memory card becomes full
- Can take still pictures while recording video (video gets paused automatically)
- 12 times optical zoom
- 640 by 480 at 30 fps (with stereo sound) movie mode
Thanks to Dave, for pointing me to word of the announcement in Digital Photography Review.
Kap | Comments (0) | Digital Camera
April 13, 2005
Where is my Gadget?
You should be starting to get excited…. its out there… the technology ingredients are falling into place…
Hard Drive capacities are increasing (This animation is a crack-up)
Liquid lenses will allow small devices to zoom & focus without the need for traditional bulky glass lenses – just like your eye! (well.. for those of us without glasses at least)
WiMAX should provide DSL equivalent speeds (for those of us living close enough to cities anyway).
And then with VOIP we should be able to slash the costs of calls – to anywhere in the world!
Screens are getting more flexible
And there is even some decent software to run the thing with!
Add in to this companies like HTC (the makers of the O2 mini, and other things), Samsung (making phones with hard drives and high resolution, 7Megapixel! cameras), and Archos (who have been pushing the boundaries on portable media products ), along with many, many other companies….
And the final result of all this?
No one knows yet… but its a fair bet that Gadget Lounge readers will be lining up to order one!
Tell us what you’d like to see in your device in the forum.
Random | Comments (1) | General, Mobile Phone, Broadband, Music, Wireless, Portable, PDA, Digital Camera, VOIP
February 21, 2005
Nokia Lifeblog and Christian Lindholm.
When Lifeblog was first released in July last year, many people pointed out that despite the reference, it wasn’t quite a blogging tool. That changed pretty rapidly with the announcement of a Six Apart partnership that allowed publishing directly to the Typepad online weblogging service. With that, it became very apparent that the Lifeblog team always intended blog integration, and Nokia has since included the ATOM document format, meaning we’ll see other blog services join the fold soon.
Lifeblog is more than a blogging tool, and according to Christian Lindolm, Director of Multimedia Applications, Nokia Ventures Organization, in an interview at The Gadget Show, it’s “a multimedia diary where time is the spine”. Christian points to three mega-trends that have contributed to the birth of Lifeblog, the digitalisation of memories, the increase in content due to digital media, and the evolution of the ubiquity of the camera. All converging neatly into the application. If you’re interested in remembering events, or sharing memories, then at some point you’ll use your camerphones features to take a snap shot or send text, photos or videos to family or friends, and if you do, what better way to have it stored via Lifeblog automatically.
Lifeblog, now at version 1.5, is available for download working on the Nokia 6260, Nokia 6630, Nokia 6670, and Nokia 7610 imaging phones and a Windows PC. As a free trial the version will store 200 messages, images, and video clips, the full license costing 29.95 Euros. In my podcast with Christian, he can’t say what, but hints that we’ll see some other fantastic developments with the software, and with him heading the team, there is a great chance the application will become more groundbreaking.
If you’ve got one of the supported phone, give it a try.
For more details on Lifeblog, Christian’s work at Nokia, the Nav-Key and Series 60 stories, and sailing, check out this weeks “Gadget Show” podcast…featuring Christian Lindholm.
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | Mobile Phone, Digital Camera, Software
February 10, 2005
Flickr Graph.
Marumushi has developed a neat Flickr application that displays the social relationships in Flickr. Flickr Graph.
Flickr Graph is an application that explores the social relationships inside flickr.com. It makes use of the classic attraction-repulsion algorithm for graphs.
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | General, Digital Camera
February 07, 2005
4 Gigapixel Camera.
Weighing more than 100 pounds, Flint’s camera captures images at 4 gigapixels — a resolution high enough to photograph four football fields and capture every single blade of grass. When printed at maximum resolution, the images are as big as billboards, but render the finest detail.
A photograph of a San Diego beach shows a paraglider swooping over bluffs. Zoom in on some tiny dots on the cliff, and a group of people with binoculars and telephoto lenses can be seen. Follow their gaze, and you’ll see naked sunbathers on the beach.
From Wired.
Truly awesome stuff. Check out the cityscape of San Diego, where you literally can see a lamp in a buildings window. When the photo must have been taken at least 1 Km away.
Gadgetman | Comments (1) | Digital Camera
January 28, 2005
m:robe Due In Australia This Autumn.
PC World reports on a range of new portable music players from Olympus, the crew that bring us digital cameras, called m:robe. Both have been released in parts of the world, but the pricing has now been announced for Australia. Firstly, the MR-100 HDD music player that comes with 5GB of storage and retails for $AU399. The second, the MR-500i Motion Music player, comes with 20GB of storage and a 1280×960 or 640×480 pixel resolution camera (1.22 mega-pixel), that’ll go for $AU799. We’re not sure about the camera/music combo. The iPod photo doesn’t seem that useful, and with every mobile phone and his dog including a low resolution camera, we’ve got doubts that people will pay a premium on their music player to get a crappy res camera. Both have touch screens which might set it apart from the iPod, but the MR-100 is an incredibly ugly little sucker.
Gadgetman | Comments (3) | Music, Digital Camera
December 28, 2004
Lifeblog 1.5 Available.
We mentioned at the beginning of November that Nokia was soon to release version 1.5 of Lifeblog. Well it’s available for trial or purchase now.
As we mentioned back then.
Additions on the PC include, “a full-screen view of items, and a menu of the most commonly used commands that pop up with a right click of the mouse. We’ve even made it easy for you to do an item count so you can brag about how many items you have in your Lifeblog.”
Changes on the phone mean you “can also now add notes on the phone, reply and forward to messages you read in Lifeblog, and forward items via email, SMS, MMS, or Bluetooth wireless technology.”
Most importantly this version will include the work they are doing with Six Apart to enable users to post to a weblog. “We’ve so far tested Lifeblog with Six Apart’s TypePad service. We’ll announce others later.”
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | Mobile Phone, Digital Camera, Software
November 10, 2004
Not So Happy Snaps.
“A COOGEE Beach local has become the first person in NSW to be charged with using his mobile telephone to secretly take photographs of fellow beachgoers.
The 25-year-old was arrested by police on Saturday after allegedly trawling along the beach taking photographs of women sunbathing topless.
He was initially grabbed by beachgoers who said they noticed him walking between towels pretending to be on the phone but snapping images instead.”
From News.com.au.
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | Mobile Phone, Digital Camera
November 05, 2004
Apple Looses Grip With iPod Photo.
Gadget Lounge is going out on a limb today. Although we love our iPods, and can’t live without one, we think that Apple has lost its grip on the market by introducing the iPod Photo. Why? Because by releasing it they’ve demonstrated that they are building the player to promote their software to the PC world, rather than listening to the market and designing a new version with features people are begging for.
It was inevitable that the iPod would get a colour screen. It’s a very logical step. It enhances the user experience by making the display much easier to view. What’s less useful is using it to show people your photo collection. It’s just not a step we think that people want to take when they buy a device to listen to their music. It reeks of trying to get Windows users hooked on their iTunes software to store photos. Speculation is ripe that we’ll soon see iPhoto appear for the PC. For Apple, that’s logical, trying to penetrate a market with feature rich software is a good move for a company that makes software with beautiful user interfaces. In this case they are trying to leverage the iPod’s success. Also, not such a bad idea for someone storming the market, but by doing so they show they’re just not listening.
There seems to be two reasons why people like the idea of an iPod that stores photos. Firstly, to backup their photo collection. Technically you can already do this, it just requires manual intervention rather than automatically with iTunes. The iPod is just an advanced external storage device. Secondly, for users to view photos they’ve just taken and transfered via a Belkin iPod CameraLink. This isn’t possible. iTunes is required to transfer the photos first, before the photos can be viewed. Some people may use the iPod as a digital wallet for storing photos to show friends and families, but most people point out that the thumbnails on the screen aren’t easy to see. It’s just not a compelling reason to buy the new iPod, just an added feature to an iPod with a colour display.
We’re not suggesting that the iPod Photo won’t sell. It will. Mainly because the iPod has become a must have accessory. It’s fashionable. It won’t be because people really want the photo feature.
What might help is if Apple build a community around photos. Maybe leverage what Flickr have produced with their community software.
What do people want? The most obvious is the iPod with Wi-Fi. Of course this is difficult. Giving users the ability to move music around easier isn’t what the RIAA wants, and would effect the relationship Apple has for its iTunes Music Store. But give users the ability to just stream music between iPods, and watch the community build.
“What you listening to John?”
“Here Jane, I’ll stream it so you can hear on your iPod.”
“That’s awesome John!”
Gadgetman | Comments (2) | General, Music, Wireless, Digital Camera
October 27, 2004
iPod Photo Is Alive.
Another rumour confirmed true by Apple this morning. The iPod Photo is official. The new iPod, with 40GB or 60GB of storage, has a 2-inch LCD screen that can display up to 65,536 colours, 220 by 176 pixel resolution, perfect for photos or album art, a 40GB model, and extended battery life of up to 15 hours. Using iTunes 4.7, which has also just been released, you can point to a photo directory and have it store all your photos on the new iPod. The beauty of it is, that you can also connect the iPod to a TV or projector via the AV connector, or the iPod Photo dock that comes with the device has a S-Video output. No news on whether you can play video from the device, but storing TV or movies for play-back anywhere would be a neat feature with the S-Video output.
Available in 1 to 2 weeks you can get the 40GB for $AU799 or 60GB model for $AU949.
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | General, Music, Portable, Digital Camera
October 14, 2004
JVC Joins Blu-ray Association, And Mini-Blu-rays.
A couple of bits of news about Blu-ray technology that Gadget Lounge commented on last week. Firstly, adding to weight of the consortium, JVC have announced they’ll join the group.
“The Blue-ray format is backed by a group of 13 companies including founders Sony, Sharp, Hitachi and LG Electronics. PC behemoths Hewlett-Packard and Dell joined the fold in January this year, with JVC now becoming the group’s newest member.”
The second bit of news are the camcorders that are planned to be tested that use the Blu-ray disk, or at least the mini version that with a diameter of 8cm. They aren’t claiming they plan to release the product, but our guess is if mass production on the drives and media begin it’ll be a no-brainer.
“The firms plan to introduce camcorders that use the smaller discs, which are capable of recording more than an hour of high-quality motion pictures, the report says.”
“The retail price will be about triple that of traditional camcorders, it says.”
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | General, Digital Camera
September 23, 2004
Nokia’s 6670, GPS Module, Remote Camera and Wireless Headset.
Nokia announced a new phone today, the 6670. It appears to be just a Nokia 7610 with a more conventional case. Series 60, GSM 900/1800/1900, 65,536 colours (176×208 pixels), and 1 megapixel camera.
They also announced a few other products including a funky GPS Module, a Remote Camera that sends images via MMS, and a new Wireless Headset (HS-11W).
The GPS Module (due next year) connects wirelessly to a compatible mobile phones (Nokia 3650, 3660, 6260, 6600, 6630, 6670, 7610, 9300, 9500, N-Gage, N-Gage QD, including other Symbian based products supporting Bluetooth specification 1.1 and Serial Port Profile and NMEA 0183 compatible software) , PDA or PC using Bluetooth wireless technology. The “compact portable GPS receiver enables the use of a range of location-based applications and services, of which some offer turn-by-turn route guidance to a selected destination.”
The Remote Camera is a great idea. Using a built in motion or temperature detector it can send a text message, image or video with sound via MMS to a phone. To do this it uses it’s own transceiver (GSM 900/1800) so it can be used anywhere there is a GSM signal.
No pricing is available yet.
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | Mobile Phone, Wireless, Digital Camera, Peripherals
September 09, 2004
Vivitar DVR-390H
Vivitar are releasing their DVR390H onto the Australian market with the help of Ricoh, according to Smarthouse.
It features video and audio playback, a 3.6″ LCD display and 3.1 megapixel digital still/video camera attachment with a built in flash. It will also display your stored photos in a pseudo photo album, cycling through them to act as a (rather small) picture frame. All the data is stored on a 20 GB HDD and you can transfer stuff to and from your PC or Mac using USB (no word on 2.0 or 1.1, so expect the latter until we hear otherwise). The battery is expected to last around 4 hours solid of MPEG4 video, so you can watch a couple of movies, but try not to wander too far from power.
Here at Gadget Lounge we’ve got iPods, and can’t really see the point of converging so many devices into one (hefty) piece of kit. But, there’s bound to be some people that will find them useful, and having more choice on the market can’t be a bad thing, surely.
Be ready to hand over AUS$999 later this month if you want to be among the first on your block with one.
Ben | Comments (60) | PVR, Music, Portable, Video, Digital Camera
